


Crystals

by nyanbacon



Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TV 2012), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - All Media Types
Genre: AU, Crystal gore, Crystal growth, Crystals, Ear Torture, Eye Torture, Human AU, Minor Superpowers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-24
Updated: 2018-09-24
Packaged: 2019-07-16 15:30:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,783
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16088954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nyanbacon/pseuds/nyanbacon
Summary: Your words cut deeper than any knife ever couldBut do you even see me suffer?They fester and build in my chest and flow through my veinsThe deposits are turning into fractalsAnd I can feel them crawling up my throat…





	Crystals

They were young when Splinter finally told them the truth, but Mikey always remembered the conversation as if it had happened the day before.

It had taken place shortly after Raph had set the third piece of furniture on fire that week, even after Leo had taken all the lighters in the house and locked them up. They couldn’t have been much older than five, six at most.

Splinter had taken them all into the dojo and sat them down, sitting in front of them. Leo sat straight up in front of Splinter, attentive and ready to listen to what he had to say. Raph slouched a bit, looking uncomfortable. Clearly, he was expecting a scolding for what had been a chair, and what was now a pile of ash on the kitchen floor. Donnie was trying to play it off, but he was clearly eyeing Raph with the glint in his eye that he got when he found a new thing he wanted to research. And Mikey was fidgeting, unable to sit still so long.

“My sons,” Splinter started, and they all lifted their heads to look at him. “I believe it’s about time I… told you about your mother.”

Leo sat up impossibly straighter, and Mikey finally diverted his attention from a broken straw in the mats they were sitting on to look at him. The only thing the brothers’ had known for years was that their mother had died giving birth to them- having quadruplets was a strain, even on the healthiest of mothers. Splinter had always seemed so pained talking about her, so they’d learned to not ask questions.

“Your mother was a Creator.”

This got Donnie to sit up. “You mean-”

Splinter nodded quickly before the bright eyed nerd could interject. “Your mother was able to create life from the darkest of times. When things got difficult… she would create beautiful structures of life to bring joy to those around her.

“I believe this ability of hers was passed onto you four.”

“So that’s why Raph keeps setting stuff on fire?” Leo asked, to which Raph scowled.

“Hey! It ain’t _my_ fault you keep tellin’ me off for stuff I ain’t done!”

“Raphael, calm down,” Splinter urged, and he fell silent. “While your power is more… destructive, it’s still impressive.”

“You can set stuff on fire,” Donnie said when Raph looked confused. “It’s bad, but cool.”

This made Raph grin.

“Sensei, what can I do?” Leo asked excitedly.

Splinter stroked his beard carefully. “I am not yet sure. But it will come to fruition with time.”

 

And it did. For most of them, at least.

Months after the conversation, before their next birthday, Leo realized his Creator power when Raph came home with all good marks on his report card. He’d been so happy for his brother that he’d accidentally broke the grout by bringing forth dandelions from below the foundation of the house. It’d been a lot of money, and Leo had apologized profusely, but with the newfound power, no one was really as mad as they should’ve been.

Donnie’s came to light a little after their seventh birthday. They were in the second grade, and Raph had stupidly convinced him to bring a girl over for a playdate- which was really just the two of them playing with Donnie’s chemistry set at the kitchen table. The girl was upset for some reason or another- details were unimportant- and Donnie got so nervous at the fact she was about to start crying that he accidentally sparked a chemical they shouldn’t have had and it blew up everything on the table.

Somehow, the girl continued to come back after that.

By the time this happened, Splinter took the three of them and started working with them to control the creations. Since all of theirs were controlled by emotions- Raph’s anger, Leo’s happiness, and Donnie’s overwhelming nervousness, almost like a series of defense mechanisms- it was imperative that they learned how to keep it from happening without meaning to.

Mikey, though, not having found his power, was omitted from the lessons. Sometimes he listened without them realizing. He never liked what he heard, but it made him feel included.

“Sensei,” Donnie asked one lesson. “When will Mikey start doing this with us?”

There was a small silence, and Mikey hunkered against the wall he was hiding behind, wondering if maybe they were hesitant to answer because they knew he was there.

“It’s because he hasn’t realized what he can do, isn’t it,” Leo said, softly, like he felt bad for Mikey.

Raph snorted. “Maybe the world jus’ decided he’s too immature to have one.”

“Do not talk about your brother like that,” Splinter chastized, and Raph fell silent. After a moment, Splinter let out a sigh. “While it is true that your brother has not developed his power, I am sure he still has one. A lack of one now does not necessarily mean a lack of one later. It is unfair to make judgements on how he is now. Everyone grows.”

A small cacophony of, “hai, Sensei”s sounded off, but Mikey didn’t hear them. A dull ache in his chest left his ears ringing. His eyes and throat stung, and he knew he was going to cry- or he should’ve started crying, at least- but he didn’t. He didn’t want to give himself away.

He didn’t quite know what immature meant, not yet, but judging from the way thinking about it made his heart hurt, he knew it must’ve been bad.

He pulled his knees to his chest and sat outside the dojo, but no longer paid attention to what was going on inside. What was the point?

 

Mikey had never really been well liked. A lot of kids picked on him for getting along with his teachers so well, and liked to make fun of him when he tended to “like what girls like more than what guys liked”. He didn’t get the problem with wearing hair clips- they were kinda cute.

He didn’t have a whole lot of friends either, because of it. He’d sit alone on the playground, fumbling his way through books Donnie had lent him to make up for the fact he had nothing else to do during recess. Sometimes Donnie sat with him, and Mikey would try to ask what the book was talking about, but Donnie would just usually give him a weird look and shrug him off.

There weren’t any words spoken on Donnie’s end during those exchanges, but it hurt. Mikey had quickly grown accustomed to the aches and pains he felt whenever something upset him. There was a dull ache in his chest, right next to his heart, that kind of traveled up his throat and made it hard to breathe. His eyes stung with what he assumed were unfallen tears, and they always got wet, but the tears would go away before he got a chance to shed them. And his ears would always ring. He wasn’t sure why- maybe they were trying to block out all the nasty things people were saying about him- but they would.

Soon, when he was eight or nine, it became impossible to go through a day without having the aches come back. It was usually something that Raph said, laughing at him for messing up small things and sometimes calling him stupid, or the side eyed looks Donnie would give him when he asked for help on something that was apparently really stupidly obvious. Then, Donnie would brush him off and leave him to figure out the answer for himself, and Raph would storm off, usually, because he was angry. And Mikey would be left alone, staring down at his hands or a book or sometimes even homework, and the ringing in his ears would be so loud, he wouldn’t hear when Leo came to try and ask him what was wrong.

He would never say, either. He’d just plaster on a smile and say he was fine, and he was pretty sure Leo didn’t believe him, but he wouldn’t push it, and god all Mikey wanted was to talk about it. But if he did, it would make the aches worse, so he refused to.

He wasn’t sure if he could handle anymore than he suffered through.

 

When Mikey was ten, the aches wouldn’t go away.

He played it off sometimes, or at least tried to, when he first started realizing it was a problem. He’d ignore it and do everything the same way he did- still get laughed at and teased and picked on by Raph at home.

But eventually, it started becoming unavoidable.

Sometimes it became hard to breathe, and the ringing in his ears would be so loud he couldn’t hear his teachers, and he would see spots dancing in the left side of his field of vision. He couldn’t sleep, he’d toss and turn from the pain and hold back tears because if Raph heard him crying, he wouldn’t be able to live it down.

The worse was when he woke up one morning, and he couldn’t see out of his left eye.

He’d woke up early, much earlier than his brothers, so he had the chance to run to the bathroom to see what had happened to his eye.

It was irritated and bloodshot, and small red dots resembling acne surrounded the eye. They spread across all the way to the bridge of his nose and covered his eye lid up to his eyebrow, and down to his cheek bone. The white was now pink and blood vessels were evident, branching out from the edges of his eyes all the way to his iris.

He started to cry, panicked. He pressed his hand to his eye and stumbled out into the hallway, holding himself up against the wall with his other hand. He was shaking.

He knocked shakily on Splinter’s door, and he appeared shortly after, tired but alert.

“My son, what is-“ He was rendered silent when Mikey pulled his hand away from his eye to show the horribly marred area. He sobbed once before pressing his hands against his mouth, and Splinter bent down to place his hands on Mikey’s shoulders, turning him so he could inspect the pinpricks of red.

“We’re taking you to a doctor,” he said softly before standing up and leading Mikey towards the car, pajamas and all.

Waiting in the emergency room was one of the worst things in Mikey’s life. He was trying so hard to keep from melting into sobs in public, and Splinter sat, rubbing his back softly with a wide and flat hand. The doctor called them back, and sat Mikey down, and he told Mikey to look into a pair of large goggles that hung from the ceiling while the doctor looked at his eye from the other end.

“Is your son a Creator?” He finally said, pulling the goggles away and looking at Splinter, who frowned.

“We had suspicions, but we weren’t sure…” He started. “Why?”

“I’m afraid Michelangelo has crystalline structures growing in his eye.”

“I-in my eye?” He stammered, and his shaking got worse. Splinter quickly reached over and placed a hand over his knee.

“I don’t think there’s a way we can remove them,” the doctor said solemnly.

Mikey stared, and the ringing in his ears started again, shutting out the rest of the conversation. The doctor put one of those anime eyepatches over it to cover up the area of damage, and placed a box of more in Mikey’s hand. He tightened his grip around it and said nothing.

“What happened to Mikey?” Donnie asked in alarm once they got back, all three of them having woken up when they realized their father and younger brother were no longer in the house. Leo quickly scooped Mikey up in a hug and looked at the eyepatch. Thankfully, it covered all the little red dots.

“I just hurt my eye,” Mikey said, voice shaking. “It’s not a big deal.”

“Michelangelo-“ Splinter started, but Mikey looked up at him with one glistening eye and he sighed softly, deciding that if Mikey didn’t want to say anything, then it wasn’t his place to ruin that.

“How’d you manage to do that?” Raph growled. “You were just fine yesterday, you clumsy oaf.”

Mikey flinched at the words, and a spark of pain radiated from his eye. He quickly reached up and pressed a fist to the patch, pressing against it to try and alleviate the pain.

Leo tightened his hold on Mikey’s shoulders. “Just leave him alone, Raph.”

Mikey turned and hid his face in Leo’s shirt, wondering how long he’d have to deal with this.

 

When they were eleven, the red dots had started to turn purple, and become hard and pointy. The eyepatch still hid them, but not as well, now that the dots pressed out against it. Mikey couldn’t keep it hidden anymore, and his brothers started asking questions.

“What are these?” Leo asked, cupping Mikey’s face in his hands.

“I-I don’t know…” Mikey stammered out a lie.

“Have these been here all year?” Donnie asked, quickly grabbing Mikey’s attention away from Leo and towards himself.

Mikey swallowed and didn’t speak.

“Can you see?” Donnie asked, and Mikey’s body went stiff. A crestfallen look passed Leo’s face, and Mikey ducked his head.

“N-no…” he murmured, quickly covering up his eye with a fist. “Not since…”

“Since you started wearing the eye patch,” Leo finished for him, and Mikey nodded mutely.

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Raph growled, and it was obvious he was trying to not be too angry about the situation.

Mikey shook his head, not looking at them. “I didn’t think it would get…”

“I wanna try pulling one out.”

“What?” Mikey shrieked, and Leo turned to look at Donnie in alarm.

“No way, Don.” Leo squeezed Mikey’s hand. “His biological functions aren’t for you to analyze.”

“I could try figuring out what they are, though,” Donnie argued.

Mikey pursed his lips when his brothers were quiet, before blurting out, “they’re crystals.”

He could feel their gazes on them, and he folded in on himself.

“I thought you said-“ Raph started.

“I lied.” Mikey fidgeted with his hands. “The doctor said… it was-it might’ve been my creation… thing.”

“… to have crystals growing out of your eye?” Donnie asked incredulously. “That seems so… so impractical!”

Mikey shrugged weakly.

“I think you should go to the doctor again,” Leo said, trying to hide how much his voice was shaking. “Just to check.”

 

They had to wait a week before they could get an appointment with an actual doctor who specialized in Creators. For the week, Mikey tried to avoid the aches that made his whole body sore, but they came back worse than the last every time he heard some whisper spoken about him, some hateful, uncaring word muttered under their breath. His brothers smothered him, trying to make sure he was okay and comfortable. Those were the only times the aches went away.

On the day of the appointment, Mikey was woken up in the middle of the night by an awful earache that kept him from hearing anything. He reached up and rubbed his ear with a fist, trying to ease the pain, but it only made it worse. He slowly sat up and reached up to ease a finger into his ear canal gently, to see if there was some sort of blockage he could alleviate, but what he felt made his stomach drop.

Small, raised bumps lined the inside of his ear, and when he pushed down on them, they poked out into his finger similarly to the way the ones around his eye did.

He pulled is finger away to see it was coated lightly in blood and some other liquid he didn’t know, and he felt like he was going to be sick.

He was afraid to bring it up the next morning, before he and Splinter were going to head off to the doctor.

Donnie hadn’t taken his searching, curious eyes off of Mikey since the beginning of that week, so he was the first to notice something was off about the way Mikey was holding himself. Mikey knew little about how balance worked, but he knew that the structures in his ear were obstructing his ability to stand straight.

“Mikey,” He started, and the youngest looked up at him. “Is something wrong? You’re walking kind of…”

Mikey swallowed and made his way over to the chair at the table. There was no way he could avoid it now.

“I… th-they started growing in my ear, too.”

Donnie stared at him, and Leo dropped his spoon. Mikey felt like he was going to start crying.

“We’ll bring it up to the doctor when we see him,” Splinter promised softly, trying to maintain a calm image. They all recognized the familiar lines of worry that outlined his face, though, and knew he was more concerned than he was calm.

 

“Have these ares had any… significance to you?” The doctor asked once he got a chance to inspect the crystals. Mikey’s left eye stayed shut all the time now, swollen and smothered by the base of the crystals. According to the doctor, they were bigger under the skin and overwhelming the side of his face, growing straight from his skull and jutting out through his eye and from the socket. It brought excruciating pain that Mikey had become an expert at hiding. He couldn’t hear as well out of his right ear, either, and without the doctor explaining, he knew crystals were growing around his ear drum and were so close to ripping the delicate inner workings of his ear to shreds.

“I…” Mikey’s one eyed gaze flickered to Splinter fearfully, afraid to admit this. Splinter silently urged him to talk, just with a look, and Mikey swallowed past the ache in his throat. “My eyes always hurt whenever… someone says something mean about me.”

The doctor stopped, and frowned at him. “Like… a crying ache?”

Mikey nodded. “It’s always been that way. It’s just… it started getting worse. And my ear would start to ring sometimes too, like it was… trying to shut out what they were saying?”

The doctor wrote something down. “Are there any other places you experience this pain?”

Mikey clenched his hands into fists and squeezed them between his knees. He already knew where this was going without even answering the question.

“My throat,” he said slowly, pointedly not looking at the doctor or Splinter. “And my chest. Right… right where my heart is.”

The room grew colder and Mikey wanted nothing more than to curl into a ball and die.

 

Mikey was pulled out of the school system, away from the kids who talked trash about him when they thought he wasn’t listening. His brothers were heavily lectured any time they did something that started the aches.

It didn’t help, though. The process slowed, but did not stop. They all knew, even before the problems got worse, that it was too late. They just refused to talk about it.

By the time Mikey turned 14, things had taken a turn for the worse. The crystals had never stopped growing, and he couldn’t keep the eye patch on to conceal the crystals. They’d replaced his eye entirely, and he hated looking at people, even his brothers, because their eyes always flickered to the sharp, purple growths that protruded from his eye. He shut himself in his room and refused to come out. His ear had gotten worse, too. Blue crystals were visible just outside his ear. Both bled all the time. They hurt, burned, and he described it sometimes as feeling like someone was slowly pressing a dagger into the area, but he couldn’t cry, because he didn’t want to make the crystals in his eye hurt worse than they already did.

Then, it became hard to breathe, and he found himself coughing up blood a lot, after trying to eat or drink anything. His brothers stopped respecting his request to be left alone in his room to hide the crystals in his eye and ear- and they stopped focusing on it so much. Someone was always with him, there when he’d start wheezing and help him sit up to let blood ooze out of his throat into a bowl they kept by the bed.

It took mere weeks for the crystals to reduce him to nothing but a shaking pile. He couldn’t eat, or drink, and speaking and even breathing was hard past the crystals growing from his throat.

Leo sat up against the headboard, holding Mikey against his chest. The smaller was pale and shaking, and blood stained his face and had created a stain on Leo’s shirt that they all knew would never wash out. Donnie sat behind Mikey, rubbing his back gently in an attempt to ease the pain it was evident Mikey was suffering through. Raph sat on the other side, on the edge of the bed, and squeezed Mikey’s knee softly.

Mikey closed his eye slowly, letting out a shuddering sigh. This was the end.

They all knew it, but they wouldn’t say.

Leo carded his fingers through Mikey’s hair carefully. “You still with us?” He asked hoarsely. He couldn’t hide it anymore.

Mikey slowly opened his eye. “… you can’t…” He started, and coughed blood onto his lips. It dribbled down his chin. Raph reached up with a tissue and wiped it off. “… blame yourselves.”

Raph threw the tissue away and scowled. “Course we can, Mike. This is…”

“You know this was our fault,” Donnie said softly.

Mikey shook his head slowly, and Donnie carefully balled his hands into a fist so he could rub his knuckles along Mikey’s back. “… not just you.”

“But it-“ Raph started, but he was cut off. Probably by a look from Leo.

“…. s’okay, Raphie…” Mikey breathed slowly. Raph looked away. “I forgive you.”

Raph turned to look at him with wide eyes. “But I-“

“I forgive… all of you.”

Leo tightened his hold on Mikey’s body as the younger went limp, one final trail of blood dripping from the corner of his lip. “Mikey…” he breathed, trying to not let his voice break. “Mikey, wake up. C’mon…”

Donnie bowed his head, letting his hand drop. Raph squeezed Mikey’s knee tightly, staring at the blood and the crystals.

None of them moved for hours, until Splinter came to check. As he stepped into the room, the taut illusion broke, and Leo started to sob into Mikey’s hair.

**Author's Note:**

> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bQZPQ2fGDo


End file.
